1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a fixing apparatus and an image-forming apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
Among image-forming apparatus are a printer, a copying machine, and a facsimile machine that use an electrophotographic image-forming process. Such an image-forming apparatus is equipped with a fixing unit in which a toner image deposited on a recording medium is fused into a permanent image. The fixing unit includes a heat roller having a built-in heater therein, a pressure pad that opposes the heat roller, and a fixing belt that is sandwiched between the heat roller and the pressure pad and pressed against the heat roller by the pressure pad.
The pressure pad presses the fixing belt against the heat roller to create a nip between the fixing belt and the heat roller. However, the aforementioned conventional fixing unit suffers from the problem that the nip region is difficult to be uniform for different types of recording medium and non-uniform nips cause poor print quality.